Standardization is one of the key features of modern wireless communications networks. Thus, standardization documents like those issued by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the specifications defined therein have become of high importance to manufacturers of network infrastructure in general and manufacturers of network components like mobile terminals in particular.
A central aspect of all standardization approaches are specific minimum requirements. Such minimum requirements insure a high compatibility among network components from different manufacturers. At the same time minimum requirements do not hinder the introduction of more sophisticated features for the benefit of network operators or network users.
One field for which minimum requirements are usually defined is the performance of receivers that are included in many network components. Usually, the receivers are embedded in so-called transceivers that additionally perform signal processing tasks in context with signal transmission.
Network components that include sophisticated hardware or software features like interference cancellation mechanisms, and thus have a receiver performance higher than the minimum requirements, are usually particularly advantageous from the point of view of a transmitting network component. The reason for this is the fact that a high receiver performance allows to reduce the transmit power of the receiver's counterpart. A reduced transmit power is not only desirable because of a lower power consumption but also because it allows to reduce interference effects and to increase network capacity.
Modern wireless communications systems like wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems have intelligent power control schemes and features that guarantee a certain quality of service (QoS). It is evident that in the presence of such mechanisms there is no clear benefit for a user of a network component like a mobile terminal that has a receiver performance higher than the minimum requirements. While the high receiver performance allows a serving network node to reduce its transmit power and thus increases the network capacity, the user might even pay for these advantages because of the higher power consumption usually associated with sophisticated receiver structures.
There is a need for an approach that improves aspects in context with network components having sophisticated receiver structures. More specifically, there is a need for methods and devices that allow a more advantageous implementation of mechanisms that guarantee an enhanced receiver performance.